Vent: a 20 minute stamp job on a garage slab turned into 4 hours because of one low spot
Had a garage slab in Cranston last Friday, about 24 by 30, and the homeowner wanted a simple broom finish with a stamped border. Easy money, or so I figured, and I quoted it as a half day. The border kept holding water in one corner because the subgrade dipped almost 3/4 inch right where the forms sat, so every pass the stamp sank and the edges slumped back in. I ran the edger over that corner maybe six times before I got a line I could live with, and by then the mud was setting faster than I could catch it, so I had to mist and rework it. Two extra bags of mix and a second trip for a longer straightedge later, I finished past dark. Anyone got a trick for spotting a soft corner like that before the mud goes down, or do you just walk every form with a level first?